IEM Seminar Series: Metamaterial devices for a new degree of wave control
Event details
| Date | 20.01.2023 |
| Hour | 13:15 › 14:00 |
| Speaker | Romain Fleury |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract
Waves, such as light or sound, are used everywhere in current technologies, from communication systems to imaging devices. Electromagnetic or mechanical waves can transport energy over long distances, and be used to carry information through complex media or to process it in engineered systems.
The characteristic size of a wave, known as the wavelength, plays a key role in the engineering of wave devices capable of filtering, routing, or focusing wave energy. In particular, controlling waves on scales smaller than the wavelength is extremely challenging, yet highly desirable especially when the wavelength is macroscopic, as in the case of audible sound or microwaves.
In this talk, I will discuss how to solve this vexing challenge using metamaterials, which are structured wave materials with tailored dispersive properties. In a first part, I will explain how our laboratory has managed to create and transfer to the market a new generation of microwaves devices that are orders of magnitude lighter that the ones currently used in satellites. In a second part, I will demonstrate how it is possible to leverage topology as a tool to force waves to travel along a predefined path without back-reflections, thereby drastically squeezing the size of microwave networks. Finally, I will discuss how active metamaterials and metasurfaces can counteract the harmful effect of disorder in a complex medium, allowing waves to be transmitted through multiple scattering media and arbitrarily move and rotate objects within them, despite the presence of large dynamic disorder.
Biography
Romain Fleury is currently Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at EPFL, where he leads the Laboratory of Wave Engineering. He has obtained the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015, working with Prof. Andrea Alù. In 2016, he was a Marie-Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow at ESPCI Paris-Tech and CNRS Langevin Institute, in Paris, working with Prof. Mathias Fink. He started at EPFL in 2017, in the Institute of Electrical and Micro Engineering, within the EPFL School of Engineering.
His research interests include a wide variety of topics in the field of wave physics and engineering, including periodic structures, nonreciprocal wave propagation, classical topological insulators, active and time-modulated metamaterials, etc. He has co-authored more than 50 articles in scientific journals, including Science, Nature, and various Physical Review journals. He has received in 2018 an Eccellenza grant from the SNSF, and in 2021 an ERC Starting grant. He has served as Technical Program Committee chair of the European conference Eucap 2019 (1200 submissions), and editorial board member of the New Journal of Physics (IOP). He is the recipient of various teaching awards, including the 2019 STI Polysphere award and a IEL best teacher award. Finally, he is the co-founder of Minwave, a company supported by the European Space Agency, selling miniaturized microwave devices based on an invention patented by his laboratory. Minwave received various tech transfer awards, including ESA-BIC CH, FIT and Venture Kick.
More information is available at https://www.epfl.ch/labs/lwe/.
Waves, such as light or sound, are used everywhere in current technologies, from communication systems to imaging devices. Electromagnetic or mechanical waves can transport energy over long distances, and be used to carry information through complex media or to process it in engineered systems.
The characteristic size of a wave, known as the wavelength, plays a key role in the engineering of wave devices capable of filtering, routing, or focusing wave energy. In particular, controlling waves on scales smaller than the wavelength is extremely challenging, yet highly desirable especially when the wavelength is macroscopic, as in the case of audible sound or microwaves.
In this talk, I will discuss how to solve this vexing challenge using metamaterials, which are structured wave materials with tailored dispersive properties. In a first part, I will explain how our laboratory has managed to create and transfer to the market a new generation of microwaves devices that are orders of magnitude lighter that the ones currently used in satellites. In a second part, I will demonstrate how it is possible to leverage topology as a tool to force waves to travel along a predefined path without back-reflections, thereby drastically squeezing the size of microwave networks. Finally, I will discuss how active metamaterials and metasurfaces can counteract the harmful effect of disorder in a complex medium, allowing waves to be transmitted through multiple scattering media and arbitrarily move and rotate objects within them, despite the presence of large dynamic disorder.
Biography
Romain Fleury is currently Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at EPFL, where he leads the Laboratory of Wave Engineering. He has obtained the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015, working with Prof. Andrea Alù. In 2016, he was a Marie-Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow at ESPCI Paris-Tech and CNRS Langevin Institute, in Paris, working with Prof. Mathias Fink. He started at EPFL in 2017, in the Institute of Electrical and Micro Engineering, within the EPFL School of Engineering.
His research interests include a wide variety of topics in the field of wave physics and engineering, including periodic structures, nonreciprocal wave propagation, classical topological insulators, active and time-modulated metamaterials, etc. He has co-authored more than 50 articles in scientific journals, including Science, Nature, and various Physical Review journals. He has received in 2018 an Eccellenza grant from the SNSF, and in 2021 an ERC Starting grant. He has served as Technical Program Committee chair of the European conference Eucap 2019 (1200 submissions), and editorial board member of the New Journal of Physics (IOP). He is the recipient of various teaching awards, including the 2019 STI Polysphere award and a IEL best teacher award. Finally, he is the co-founder of Minwave, a company supported by the European Space Agency, selling miniaturized microwave devices based on an invention patented by his laboratory. Minwave received various tech transfer awards, including ESA-BIC CH, FIT and Venture Kick.
More information is available at https://www.epfl.ch/labs/lwe/.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Prof. Jean-Philippe Thiran, IEM Director